The Department of Physics originated as a natural science program at the Chicago Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois, Navy Pier campus, then later expanded after the University established a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and moved the physics department along with the other natural science programs to the main campus in 1964. The department currently conducts research in a wide variety of theoretical and experimental fields in physics, including atomic and molecular physics, biophysics, nuclear and particle physics, and condensed matter. The department operates research laboratories on campus, including the Microphysics Laboratory, Atomic and Molecular Physics laboratory, and the Modern Microscopy Laboratory. Researchers in the department also work off campus at Fermi lab, Argonne National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

James S. Kouvel (1926-2008). Ph.D. (Yale University, 1951). Department of physics, Harvard University (1952-1956); physicist, General Electric Company (1955-1969); professor of physics, University of Illinois at Chicago (1969-2007).